Drugs to Spirituality

[homeboy]

What are some of your thoughts on using drugs to reach the higher realm or other dimension? There have been old indian tribes that use salvia divinorum to gain spiritual experiences and also marijuana in Rastafarian ceremonies. Are experiences authentic to acheiving greater awareness?

[Simmiah]

But I'm not for it.

I've known people when I was younger who kept telling me they had spiritual experiences through marijuana & ecstasy & most notably, acid.

However, I've not touched drugs except for twice when I was 19 .. & only pot then. It didn't do anything for me that I didn't already feel sometimes so I didn't see the allure.

I don't think the path to enlightenment lies in drugs...sure they can experience the 'states' but are they ready for them? Based on the comments I used to hear from those people & the books they used to read.. I will say they were not ready for the states they experienced so they unwittingly attached the 'states' to the drugs they used to obtain them. Oftentimes I heard pride associated with obtaining these 'states' & a lot of ego going on..which makes sense they couldn't understand what the higher states were about. I wonder if having an access to the 'states' through drugs occurs without surrendering the ego in some way... I really wonder about the awareness that emerges.

When I had my state of Joy that lasted a few hours I had been reading the Heart Sutra prior to that for a few months. I had contemplated it..tried to logicalize it.. even wrote a poem about it.. & well! When I had my state, the entire thing made sense. But if a person who has no exposure to say.. the heart sutra obtains the state.. of what do they have to compare it to?

David Hawkins (who I respect) wrote that using drugs to access higher states of being had a karmic debt that was incurred. I do not know what he means by karmic debt but it doesn't seem like it would make any sense to do drugs & not work the other way by surrendering the ego.

Maybe someone else can comment on a more personal level but I personally feel sort of against drugs. I guess that sums it up!

[homeboy]

So you did receive an authentic experience. Although most people might not come to understand them when using drugs, these experiences are the same as if you had traveled the path to get there except you might be a little confused because you accidently got there. Interesting...

[ripcurly]

well i got great feelings of joy doing mushrooms and then i did too much of them and melted my brain.. it took a good 6 months to get back to normal. i dont do anything anymore. one thing that looks pretty intersting is that herb you take before you go to bed that makes your dreams really intense... maybe one day when i have enough wisdom to decide, but not today. not for a long time.

[Erock]

I would try to say it better than Sri Nisargadatta, but I couldn't:

"No doubt, a drug that can affect your brain can also affect
your mind, and give you all the strange experiences promised.
But what are all the drugs compared to the drug that gave you
this most unusual experience of being born and living in sorrow
and fear, in search of happiness, which does not come, or does
not last. You should enquire into the nature of this drug and find
an antidote."

Erock

[Dan.Linehan]

I like the way you think Erock. If you're ever in Nor Cal I'll be forced to pwn you at tennis though. Fair warning.

[DoAnyOfYouExist]

Originally Posted by Erock

I would try to say it better than Sri Nisargadatta, but I couldn't:

"No doubt, a drug that can affect your brain can also affect
your mind, and give you all the strange experiences promised.
But what are all the drugs compared to the drug that gave you
this most unusual experience of being born and living in sorrow
and fear, in search of happiness, which does not come, or does
not last. You should enquire into the nature of this drug and find
an antidote."

Erock

That drug is called oxygen, figured that out during a nitrous binge. Most powerful drug = oxygen. Anywho without getting into my theory on drugs and life too in depth I will just say this : Life is a long chain of lessons to learn, sometimes you see em, learn em, grow, and move onto the next lesson, ever closer to the end result, the last big lesson. Ok so when you ignore the lessons all around you and do not learn from them, they recycle and come up again later in your life, probably in a different form. I can't speak for everyone but for me drugs(delics mostly) speed up and intensify this learning experience and make the lessons more obvious. This has been my experience and I remain of the belief that drugs are special tools to be treated with special care. There is karmic debt from using drugs disrespectfully.

[Erock]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

I like the way you think Erock. If you're ever in Nor Cal I'll be forced to pwn you at tennis though. Fair warning.

Hey dude, I have some D1 offers...

That's a challenge.

Erock

[777]

Originally Posted by DoAnyOfYouExist

That drug is called oxygen, figured that out during a nitrous binge. Most powerful drug = oxygen. Anywho without getting into my theory on drugs and life too in depth I will just say this : Life is a long chain of lessons to learn, sometimes you see em, learn em, grow, and move onto the next lesson, ever closer to the end result, the last big lesson. Ok so when you ignore the lessons all around you and do not learn from them, they recycle and come up again later in your life, probably in a different form. I can't speak for everyone but for me drugs(delics mostly) speed up and intensify this learning experience and make the lessons more obvious. This has been my experience and I remain of the belief that drugs are special tools to be treated with special care. There is karmic debt from using drugs disrespectfully.

I've had several experiences with nitrous. Throughout my late teens I searched high and low for enlightening drugs and had varied success. Inhaling nitrous whilst high on cannabis was the key to unlocking my mind... I respect that everybody has their own path and their own ways of searching for enlightenment, for me, I was a 'lost soul' and taking drugs had a huge appeal, also being easily accessible.

I had a spiritual awakening that I can compare only to accounts of explosions of the mind, such as that experienced by Dr. Mikao Usui who discovered the Usui System of natural healing... commonly known as Reiki..

Dr. Usui went into Zen practice and trained himself for three years searching for "the way to reach the state of mind of accepting our fate and living in peace." After three years of training he had not attained the spiritual enlightenment that he had been seeking. He asked his teacher of Zen practice how he could attain a true awakening. The teacher responded "Die one-time."

As Dr. Usui was advised to "die" from his hope for spiritual awakening, he decided that "this was the end of his life." In March 1922 he began fasting and meditating on Mount Kurama (a sacred mountain in Japan). At midnight, after three weeks of his vigil, he felt a great shock in the centre of his brain, as if being struck by lightening and became unconscious.

It was at dawn when he became conscious, it is said he was filled with a refreshing feeling like he never felt before. When he felt the great shock in his brain, Reiki pierced his body and mind, resonating throughout his being, He felt the unity with the universe and completed his search for a true awakening."

My search for true awakening was a little less arduous, but nevertheless my intent was pure and I respected the drugs that I used as tools. Breathing nitrous through a balloon was in hindsight starving myself of oxygen, but it was also an extremely concentrated form of ‘breath work’, which is often used in meditation to quieten the mind. The cannabis slowed down my thought processes, allowing me to follow my breath with great precision.

Drugs ARE dangerous, there is no doubt in that. But used with the correct intent by someone who respects everything in the universe as having its place and reason for existing, then drugs can make very enlightening tools. All of the ancient civilizations used them.

I no longer take drugs. They have served their purpose.

After my spiritual awakening it took a while before I ‘came back down to Earth’ and for several weeks I believed I was going crazy, having never experienced synchronicities or miracles. Then I had the realization that my 'crazy' was in fact a lot more sane than much of what is going on in our world today. Now I am fully on my spiritual path as a healer and as a DJ, channelling a universal divine message through music, a message that I believe to be from source. I am a dedicated light-worker and have surrendered myself to a higher intelligence that now co-creates a truly magickal life with me, fulfilling what I believe to be my destiny….

[AndyMartin]

Drugs can help us experience states of consciousness that can help develop into higher stages of conscious development. It's not just in the area of smokers and psychodelics that people confuse the two. Experiencing a taste of enlightenment does not make you enlightened, regardless of how it came. But those experiences can expand your awareness in ways that help you develop. The hard part about drugs is that you get so altered that it's harder to bring that experience back to normal awareness. But then...you never bring the whole thing back anyway. The real question is whether you're using them to wake up or to go to sleep. Just be smart about it if you do use.

[stroodle]

Drugs (marijuana) helped me discover...the truth.

One night I was high and I suddenly I become more aware then ever before. It was an incredible feeling...as if I had finally just awoken from a lifelong dream. The more I took in from my surroundings, the more truth I was seeing and comprehending.

But it was also scary, because..well, the truth is scary. I remember telling myself something along the lines of 'this awareness I'm experiencing right now is a glimpse of the truth and to take life incredibly seriously from this day forward...so that I can start/continue to understand this truth'

That night I went home and put on a 'chai' necklace I had, but had never worn. It means 'life' in Hebrew. I am not a religious person, nor do I really believe in religion period. I wear it so I never forget 'what is really going on here'.


SO, I agree with some of the other posters, that drugs can have great effects on raising your level of consciousness. But like everything, use in moderation.

P.S. After that night I told myself to lay off the weed, cause I bet seeing the truth could be addictive, and I should focus my efforts in the 'real world' and be a productive person with my new found knowledge and understanding of LIFE